"The Story Moves On..."
By Kianna Mora
Part One - New Conflicts
Gjazamona surveyed the dimension that she was finally able to find and gazed at the 5 young men that were talking, none of them had any armors and it looked at if there were no armor signatures. She puzzled over that for a moment, and scanned as far as she could for any hint of the energy signature she had just experienced. There were none and she decided to find out if these five knew anything. As she came closer to the young men she heard what they were saying.
The one with black hair spoke something about what he was going to do next. As Gjazamona was invisible, she decided to get a closer look at the men. The blonde one seemed to sense her presence and looked around, trying to pinpoint what it was. Gjazamona went still and the blonde one stopped looking around. As soon as she took another step, his head whipped around at the noise. The black haired man looked at him inquiringly, "what's up Sage?"
Sage took one more look around, "I don't know, it just seems like I heard someone walking around and I could have sworn I felt something arrive a moment ago. It's probably just my imagination; we probably need to stop looking over our shoulders, now that Talpa is gone."
Gjaz's eyes widened, these were the people she was looking for!
Without even realizing that she was still invisible she said, "Sage is right, there is someone here right now." All five men started to look for the source of the voice, their alarm becoming apparent when no one seemed to appear.
"What are you all looking for, I'm right here. Oh, right…." Gjaz closed her eyes for a moment and seemed to materialize right next to the man with black hair.
"Whoa! Where did you come from," he exclaimed.
"I'm sorry to drop in like this, but I need your help. This may come as a surprise, but I don't live on this planet and my mother is being tortured by an entity calling his self Talpa,"
Sage looked startled, "But that is impossible, we just killed him not that long ago."
Gjaz shook her head, "Talpa wasn't alive, you can't kill a spirit, and all you did was banish him from your Realm. That in itself is a great feat. Talpa is very powerful, and we have had trouble fending him off and also that minion of his. I think his name was Cale."
The redhead spoke for the first time, "I thought Cale turned good, at least he did when he left."
Gjazamona nodded, "And that might be so, but there are several dimensions, some of which things go very much differently than the dimension you are in now."
The black haired man shook his head in confusion, "So, what do you want us to do? We've done what we were charged to do by the Ancient One; Talpa is no longer coming to this Realm. Besides why would we want to help you?"
Gjaz sighed, "My mother is being tortured relentlessly by Talpa and Cale and they won't stop until she gives in and hands over her power. At least that is what they think will happen, someone just can't hand over their power. I've tried everything to help her and she sent me as a last ditch effort to find the Ronin Warriors, the only ones to defeat Talpa in a thousand years, and bring them to her. I know that she has something in mind, but she won't tell me. I've already wasted 2 days looking for you and I don't want to have to force all of you to come, but if it comes down to that, I will.
The black haired man looked apologetic, "I'm very sorry to hear about your mother, but I'm not sure what we can do for her. We don't have our armors anymore and we have no way of getting to the Nether Realm, even if we wanted to. Most of us are weary of fighting. You said earlier that there are other dimensions with the same people, but different circumstances go find these and we wish you luck."
Gjaz nodded, "I'm afraid that you leave me with no choice. I said that I had already wasted two days, and that is two days of needless torture for my mother." Her eyes began to glitter and the glow started to permeate the surrounding area until all the Ronin Warriors could see was Gjaz and a blinding white. Soon, even Gjaz was gone, and with that all five stopped seeing white, but an endless black.
••••••••
Gjaz guided her charges through the dimensions, making sure none woke up. She had to make a pit stop in this Nether Realm of theirs and get their armors as quickly as possible. She could already feel the pull of her father calling her back home. She had taken too long, all thanks to that Rimmer, and he was going to pay for this interference. She found the Nether Realm quickly; it was just adjacent to the dimension she just came from. Gjaz created an opening for her and the Warriors to go through and landed on a grassy hill overlooking the palace.
She could see some guards coming towards her with weapons drawn. When they came within 5 yards of her, one spoke, "Identify yourself and your business here!"
Gjaz nodded, "I am Gjazamona and with me I have the Ronin Warriors, I need to speak to the one that took their armors."
The guard stole a quick glance behind her and saw the five men still unconscious, "Then you would need to speak to Lady Kayura, you will be escorted there by my security detail."
Gjaz inclined her head in thanks; at least someone was willing to help a little. She was escorted by the troops, with some of the security detail carrying the Ronins. She was led into the smaller of the palaces and taken to what could be called a hasty throne room.
The soldiers placed the Ronins on the floor and left, the guard stayed behind long enough to tell her that the Lady would be arriving soon. She was kept waiting for a whole of five minutes when the large door behind the raised dais opened and a petite woman in long robes, stepped through.
She walked to the chair sitting on the dais and folded her arms across her chest. "I'm Lady Kayura, how can I help you?"
Gjaz started to speak when one of the Ronins started to wake up, it was the burly one. "Ow, my head, what the hell happened? And where are we?" He was looking around and to his surprise he looked up at Lady Kayura, "What! What are you doing here and what just happened!"
Lady Kayura shot a glance at Gjazamona, "That is what I am trying to find out, Kento. Wake the others and all will be explained." Sliding her gaze back to Gjazamona she said, "I'm still waiting."
"My name is Gjazamona and I have enlisted the help of the Ronin Warriors to banish Talpa from my realm."
Kayura raised an eyebrow, "I find that hard to believe when Talpa is already banished. What proof do you have, and why are you here?"
Gjazamona took a bracing breath, "I need you to restore the armors to the Warriors. As for proof, I could get images of what is happening to someone in my family. Do you have a mirror I could borrow?"
Kayura nodded and clapped her hands, shortly there was a servant carrying a wall mirror. He brought it past the dais and deposited it in front of Gjaz. Gjaz reached for it and thought of the last images of her mother just after she was tortured, face all bruised, left arm was broken, other atrocities done to her body. As she thought of these images, she transferred them to the mirror and as another image and another flashed over the surface of the mirror, she could hear gasps and soft choking sounds. Minutes ticked by and she showed the image of Cale with a dagger in his hand slamming it down, then the image flashed and this time it was of Talpa holding her mother at the wall with one big hand around her throat.
Flash, this one was of Gjaz throwing a ball of pure power at Cale as he entered the palace, as if he owned it, and Cale just flicking it away. He looked at Gjaz and continued to walk on.
Flash, an image of a pale Ash curled into a little ball as Cale kicked her mercilessly. Tears began to flow down Gjaz's cheeks, as image after horrendous image flashed on the screen. She couldn't seem to let go of the mirror, and soon the glass of the mirror began to melt and start to ripple as if a pebble was thrown into a still pool. The ripples became more and more erratic and soon it looked as if a hand were coming out of the glass. The hand was covered in the molten glass and the blades of a bear claw materialized right before Gjazamona's face, barely missing her throat as Kayura screamed, "Get her hands off of the mirror, before a Gate is opened!"
Ryo was the first to react and was reaching for Gjazamona's hands as one claw made a small cut on her throat. Ryo frantically pried at her fingers trying to get her to let go, but Gjazamona was so enthralled in the images that she was creating, that she was lost to the spell she was weaving. All of the other guys joined in and was able to get her hands off of the mirror just as the claws were beginning to dig into one of her arteries. The mirror clashed to the floor and smashed into a thousand pieces and with it, the hand was gone. Gjaz flew backward as the spell released all of the energy she was pouring into it to create the images. As she landed, she hit her head on the marble floor and was lost to oblivion.
•••••••••
Cale drew his hand out of the steaming water that he used to make a small Gate into the mirror that Gjazamona was holding. His hand had felt like it was being ripped apart when the Gate closed and his hand was still there. He barely had it out before it closed and he would have lost an appendage. It had been tricky, but he saw it as an ideal way to kill Gjazamona. Apparently, she was stronger than he ever thought and withdrew to his quarters to plan his next move.
